Otomanguean

The Oto-Manguean family is the most diverse indigenous language family of Mesoamerica. Its languages are native to Mexico, though the extinct Manguean branch once reached Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Proto-Oto-Manguean is estimated to have been spoken as early as the fourth millennium BC. The principal branches are Zapotecan and Mixtecan in Oaxaca and Oto-Pamean in central Mexico, led by Otomi.

Uniquely among the language families of the Americas, every Oto-Manguean language is tonal. Zapotec speakers raised Monte Albán around 500 BC and carved some of Mesoamerica's earliest inscriptions, and Mixtec painters later recorded royal genealogies in pictorial codices. By the 1300s Mixtec and Zapotec kingdoms divided the valleys of Oaxaca, while Otomi towns bordered the Nahua-speaking highlands.